APOLOGETICS – Creation / Evolution Q & A

Whenever the topic of Creation vs Evolution comes up, there are several questions that are commonly asked:

1. How old is the earth?
2. What happened to all the dinosaurs?
3. How did Noah fit all the animals on the ark?
4. Where did Cain get his wife from?
5. Where did all the different races come from?

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HOW OLD IS THE EARTH?

There are many creationists who believe that the universe is billions of years old, and either disbelieve or re-interpret the literal six day creation account in Genesis. While I respect their opinion, I maintain that the Genesis account is literally true, and that the earth is much younger than the suggested evolutionary time scales.

Evolution depends upon a very old earth for its plausibility. Evolutionists admit that if evolution is true, it would require billions of years for the huge and complex changes to occur. Currently, evolutionists estimate that the universe is about 13.5 billion years old, and the earth is 4.5  billion years old.

On the other hand the genealogies of Jesus in the Bible meticulously and definitively trace his ancestry directly back to the Adam himself; back to the sixth day of creation. When we add all the known ages of all the antecedents on that genealogical tree, we arrive at an time-span of 6,000 to 10,000 years since the creation of Adam and Eve.

What are we to make of this huge disparity? What evidence is there for determining the age of the earth?

Radiometric dating of rocks is based upon the decay of naturally occuring, unstable radiometric isotopes into more stable elements, via a series of intermediary isotopes. Various methods are used, including U238 to Lead, Rubidum-87 to Strontium-87, Potassium-40 to Argon-40, Samarium-147 to Neodymium-143, and Carbon-14 to Nitrogen-14. Scientists, knowing the half-life (decay rate) of each unstable isotope, claim to be able to calculate the age of a rock based upon the existing ratio, within a rock sample, of the unstable isotope to the stable element. In calculating the age of rocks, scientists make 3 assumptions:

1. All the Daughter Isotope atoms in a rock were once Parent Isotope atoms
2. None of the original Parent Isotope has been leached out of the rock over time.
3. The decay rate of the Parent Isotope has remained constant

The problem with these assumptions is that we have NO WAY of knowing whether ANY of these assumptions are true. Significant doubt has been cast upon radiometric dating methods in recent years, when rocks of known ages were blind tested – sent to dating laboratories for an estimation of their ages.

For example, rocks formed from the 1801 eruption of Mt Hulalai in Hawaii were sent for radiometric dating several decades ago, to three different laboratories. Despite the fact that these rocks were less than 200 years old, the estimated ages ranged from 1.9 billion years to 3.3 billion years old!

In 1973 a submarine volcano erupted off the coast of Japan, resulting in the overnight formation of a new island, Nishinoshima Island. Once again rock samples were blind tested and the ages came back ranging from 15 million to 100 million yeas old!

Similarly, “Science” magazine, Oct 11 1968, published dates of 12 to 21 million years for volcanic rock formed from the  Krakatoa eruption (1883) – which at the time of testing was only 85 yrs old!

The PowerPoint presentation, AP10  Creation / Evolution Q & A, provides significantly more examples and greater detail about the regular, huge discrepancies in radiometric dating of rocks. In fact, the discrepancies are so common, and the variations so vast, that many scientists have ceased to have any confidence in the dating of rocks at all.

Respected Australian scientist, Dr John F. Ashton, comments,  “If rocks known to be less than 100 years old, date as being hundreds of millions  or billions of years old, how can we really know the age of any rocks from radiometric dating methods?”

Every time scientists have been able to test rock dating methods using rocks with known ages (ie: using rocks that have been formed in our living memory) the same errors have been revealed. One of the principles of science is that a theory or methodology is valid only if it can be tested and verified against reality. If the testing of a theory shows it to be in error, it must either be revised or discarded. It is grossly unscientific to hold onto a theory or methodology when every reality test shows it to be invalid! And yet that is precisely what evolutionists are doing in regard to radiometric dating methods. Why? Because without it they cannot substantiate an old age for the earth, which is one of the foundations upon which the theory of evolution is built!

EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORTS A YOUNG EARTH

• Carbon 14 is an unstable form of carbon that is found in fossils, and has a half life of 5,730 years, with a theoretical absolute upper limit of 100,000 years. YET, three eminent Ph.D scientists, John Ashton, Andrew Snelling and Paul Giem, have published hard data of rocks dated between 40 million to 250 million yrs old, which contained embedded fossilised trees which still contained carbon-14, samples of the trees being dated between only 20,000 to 40,000 yrs old!

• The sun is decreasing in mass at a rate of 4 million tonnes per second. If the solar system was millions of years old the original size of the sun would have engulfed half the solar system including the orbit of all the inner planets!

• When Apollo 12 landed on the moon in 1969 it set up an experiment to measure the accumulation of dust from space on the moon. Solar panels were attached to a voltage meter which kept sending data back to earth over next 40 years. Gradually, as the solar cells became covered with space dust the voltage dropped. In 2014 NASA scientists announced that the rate of accumulation is 1mm per 1,000 years. The depth of dust on the moon’s surface is about 1cm which is about what would be expected for a young solar system – about 10,000 years old. If the solar system was 4.5 million years old, as evolutionists would have us believe, there would be about 45 metres of dust on the moon!

Respected scientist, Dr. Henry Morris, states, “Contrary to popular opinion, the actual facts of science correlate better with a young age for the earth than with the old evolutionary belief …. 10,000 years seems to be about the outside limit.”

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Essential reading for anyone who is serious about defending their faith!

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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DINOSAURS?

Evolutionists say they died out 65 million years ago, long before humans arrived (about 5 million years ago). Yet, there are thousands of places on earth with dinosaur footprints in rock – supposedly 65 million years old. How could footprints be exposed to the weather for 65 million years without being eroded?

In 1968, human and dinosaur tracks were discovered in the same rock strata at Paluxy River, Texas. Evolutionists have spent large amounts of time and money trying to discredit them. In 1995, human and dinosaur tracks were discovered side by side on a plateau in Turkmenistan. Once again, these finds directly contradict the proposed evolutionary time scales, because dinosaurs were supposedly extinct 60 million years before humans evolved.

In 1997, Mary Schweitzer, professor of paleontology, North Carolina State University, found soft tissue and hemoglobin molecules inside the bones of a T-Rex. But hemoglobin molecules only last thousands of years – not millions! This caused evolutionists to claim that Mary Schweitzer’s experiment must have been contaminated. So she visited the same dig site, extracted more dinosaur bones and, under the watchful scrutiny of several sceptical scientists, repeated the experiment – with the same results! More hemoglobin was found! This is only possible if the dinosaur bones are thousands rather than millions of years old.

In 2007, Collagen protein was extracted from a T-Rex leg bone at Harvard Medical School, by Prof. John Asara. once again collagen only lasts thousands of years, not millions.

These scientific discoveries contradict the proposed evolutionary time scales and suggest that dinosaurs coexisted with humans. If this is the case, why aren’t they mentioned in the Bible? THEY ARE! Of course, the word “dinosaur” isn’t used, because it was only invented in the 18th century, but descriptions of dinosaurs are evident in the Bible.

Job 41 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook? …No one is fierce enough to defeat it … it’s mighty strength … Who can penetrate it’s double coat of armour? It’s back has rows of shields sealed together…””

Job 4015-18 “Look at Behemoth,which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly! It has a tail like a cedar tree; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit. Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron. It is the largest of all the animals that God made.”

So, what can we say about the dinosaurs?

• Dinosaurs and humans co-existed
• They became extinct. Perhaps some became extinct during the flood.
• Species are still becoming extinct. There are about 2 million species currently in existence. Scientists estimate that roughly 1,000 species become extinct each year. 

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HOW DID NOAH FIT ALL THE ANIMALS ON THE ARK?

• Firstly, the ark was very large. Taking into account its many decks, it would have had a floor area of 3 times the size of the Sydney Football Stadium!

• Secondly, Noah did not have to have every breed of dog. He just needed 2 dogs. In each “kind” of animal God created there was a complete set of genetic information incorporating all the possible variations. Genetic re-combination, through sexual reproduction was all that was necessary for 2 dogs to eventually develop into the large variety that we see today. The same is true for all major species. Thus, Noah didn’t need lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, pumahs, panthers, etc. He just needed a small number of cats. (Geneticists believe there are, at the most, 2 families of cats). Noah didn’t need nearly the number of animals that we once thought he needed. The science of genetics has helped us to see what the Bible has been saying all along; that God sent Noah “two of every wild animal ACCORDING TO IT’S KIND” (Gen 7:14).
• Thirdly, The average size of dinosaurs was about the size of a german shepherd dog. Even the very large dinosaurs were born small. In those cases God probably sent babies rather than senior citizens. Remember, too, that as with all other living things, God only needed 2 “of every kind”. Only the major species needed to be represented on the ark, with the genetic potential to develop into all the varieties within each species.

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WHERE DID CAIN GET HIS WIFE FROM?

• Gen 1-3 says there was originally just one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve. Gen 3:20 says Eve was “the mother of all people” (lit: “the mother of all the living”). Acts 17:26 says “From one man God made every nation on the earth”. It is clear that there were no other people on the earth at the time of Adam and Eve.
• Gen 5:4 says “Adam lived another 800 years and had other sons and daughters”. (In fact Jewish tradition maintains he had 40 sons and 40 daughters). The long ages of these early humans is scientifically plausible. Mankind were originally created perfect – without any genetic weaknesses. Genetic weaknesses only came after the fall, and would have compounded with the passing of time due to genetic recombination through sexual reproduction. This is evidenced by the gradual decrease in longevity with each successive generation, as recorded in Genesis.

• So, originally, Cain and his other brothers must have married their sisters. The law against close family inter-marriage didn’t come until Leviticus 18 at the time of Moses. No doubt the reason God gave this law was that, by then, genetic weaknesses had compounded to the point where such close marriages would have a high risk of producing genetically impaired offspring. In the beginning, however, there would have been no such genetic problems.

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WHERE DID ALL THE RACES COME FROM?

• There is really only one race of people. In the original humans there would have been all the necessary genetic information to develop all the varieties of appearance that we see today. Adam and Eve would have had a complete gene pool to draw from. Genetic recombination and segregation (geological, social and from the Tower of Babel) would have sped the process of diversification of appearances.
• There is really only one skin colour. We all have the same pigment in our skin (mallanen), just different amounts of it, depending on the genes we received from our parents. A genetically perfect couple, such as Adam and Eve, would have had all the genetic data for all the variations of skin pigment quantity in their gene pool. In fact, geneticists tell us that such a couple could produce offspring ranging from darkest black to fairest white in a single generation!
• Races occur as people tend to naturally segregate into groups with those of similar appearance and features. Dark skinned people tend to marry dark skinned people. Eventually they lose the original genetic information for light skin and a “race” is born. The same process occurs with the genes for all other varieties of appearance.

MITOCHONDRIAL EVE

• 1979: Drs Alan Wilson and Rebecca Cann’s study of female mitochondrial DNA (at the University of California) discovered that all women currently living had a single common female progenitor.
• Two studies (in 1981 and 1983) initially cast doubt on this, but …
• 1986: After more detailed research, Wilson and Cann’s hypothesis was finally accepted by the scientific community. They published in “Nature” on 1st Jan 1987 and “Science” 1987.
• Even Wikipedia states, “Shortly after the 1987 publication, criticism of its methodology was published . Although the original publication did have analytical limitations, the findings have since proven robust.”

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FREE RESOURCES:

PowerPoint Presentation: AP10  Creation / Evolution Q & A (.pptx)

Instructions For Downloading PowerPoint Presentations: Click the PowerPoint link, then click the “Open” drop down box at the top right of the screen and select “Open in PowerPoint Online” or similar. When the presentation is opened, click the “Notes” tab at the bottom right of screen. This will open the Presenter Notes, which provide a detailed explanation of each slide. Some slides also have embedded video content, which can be viewed via the standard “play” button or by clicking the image.

Essential reading for anyone who is serious about defending their faith!